Can anyone point me in the direction of what would cause VSS writers to enter a failed state with a "timeout" error being the last error?

I'm asking the question because the backup software we use keeps failing due to these writers not being in a stable state. The writers need to be stable in order for the backup (specifically the image backup) to be able to run correctly. I've tried the following steps:

- I have tried to simply manually restart the backup (ironically sometimes this works)
- I have restarted the services related to the corresponding vss writers. Though the writers came back up, they resorted back to a failed state after another backup attempt was performed.
- I have re-installed the backup software
- I have attempted to find tasks that may be running concurrent with the backup schedule
- I have verified that windows is up to date.
- I have re-registered the VSS DLLs
- I have restarted the system. (this temporarily worked in the past and allowed for a backup to run, but ultimately, the writers resort back to a failed state before long)
- I have contacted the software support, they claim it to be a microsoft issue.
- I have contacted microsoft support, but they would like a hefty payment to open a ticket.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.